Inside $100M+ family office investments

Speaker A: Hi Jimmy, how are you doing? Welcome to AI for Business.

Speaker B: Hi, how's it going, Sarah? Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: It's going great. I would love to share with the audience. You've been, the past four years of your career, you've been working with family offices, uh, in the Bay Area, you've been helping startups as well and coaching them. What took you from searching sports, the field of sports, when I look at your background, to changing into investment and working with family offices.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, it all started on the tennis court when I was uh, 14 years old. So I, um, actually was part of a summer camp. I was a counselor. I was always around kids kind of as, ah, a counselor, as a teacher. And then I started playing tennis, started um, actually coaching for community service hours in high school. And so, you know, at that time my mom couldn't really afford a lot of lessons. And so in exchange for lessons, I was giving my time and I kind of learned how to coach. I got all these certifications by the time I was 15 years old. And I started running a whole program with like 80 to 100 kids for the city of Miami. Then I worked at different academies, worked with a lot of different groups in both recreational level and also competitive level. And I just always had this passion for just educating and uh, connecting with people. Funny enough, when I was coaching, a lot of my clients were family offices and C suite level executives and they were coming to me to learn how to play tennis and to coach their kids. Um, and I was running programs in the summer, in the winter, after school. I even ran a lot of overnight camps too. So kids would come with me for the whole summer. And pretty much I was spending more time with them than, than uh, they were with their own parents. So that kind of uh, instilled in me just a love for the game, a love for teaching, a love for learning, um, and I was always around family offices without really knowing about it. Then in college I actually studied business and I studied sales and entrepreneurship. I did go into entrepreneurship myself. I did have a couple of failed startups myself. I also learned a lot through that, from a personal kind of journey working with different companies. I've worked with really large enterprises, middle market companies, high growth, uh, enterprises too. And through that I learned how investors played a role within that ecosystem and I just became fascinated with it. And so I started going into masterminds, started going into boot camps, learning more about how investors allocate capital into companies. And that's kind of how My journey started or one of my close friends was already in the family office space and then he kind of brought me on and then I started learning all the terminology when it comes to raising capital, different deal structures, working with ultra high net worth individuals. Even though I've always kind of been around that indirectly. And um, you know, through tennis mainly, um, I still play to this day and coached uh, a lot for many, many years. But then you know, over the course of the family office industry in the last couple years that has been my main focus. Uh but before that I was in, I was in you know, corporate edtech, luxury high ticket sales, um, and just you know, customer service front facing roles. So I hope that kind of answered that question. But it was mainly just very organic, just going through things that I love to do and meeting the right people through it.

Speaker A: Uh, that's amazing because when I talk to people I see a lot of times the way that people navigate through at least their career. I think it's, it's like that in, in all aspects of life that things align when you kind of give in to give into it the flow and kind of start just learning and having fun and enjoying it. And I think that's kind of proves it in your journey as well. I would love to know because I had, I have a success and a failure startup and I'm curious about what is the difference between family offices and VCs because VCs have a huge recognition especially in the Bay Area. Um, but family offices are known bit less because maybe they, maybe they want less exposure. I don't know. What is your take on it? How do you think they are different and operate in terms of startup investments?

Speaker B: They are very different uh, because their goals are different. So VCs typically have you know, a fund that they manage, they're managing uh, different investments into companies. They're looking for returns typically within shorter timeframes, anywhere between five to seven years nowadays more like eight to 10 years. And they can find a specific vertical or specific thesis. Right. So if you're a VC investing in consumer product goods or if you're a VC investing into health, that's your focus. That's where you kind of develop this expertise and then that's where you know where to invest into companies. Those are typically the ones that do the best in the VC world. The ones that are very focused and niche. The other funds that are kind of just investing in everything and anything, they don't really tend to last and they don't really tend to make a lot of money. Most people in the VC world know that now where family offices come in is that they tend to invest into these VCs so that they have this pool of money to then deploy. So a lot of times VCs are raising capital from LPs which are limited partners, which tend to be family offices, ultra high net worth individuals, different investors, institutions that are investing into these operators that then can go and invest that capital. And so for family offices, you know, their focus is more long term horizon. They're thinking about generational wealth building. They're thinking about what can I do today that's going to allow for my wealth to be preserved over time and then transfer that to my kids and my grandkids. And we do that. They do that through values. And then if you look at their portfolio is not only chasing alpha as opposed to VCs, VCs have to show returns. Family offices also have to show returns, but not in such an aggressive way. And so they're really looking at the holistic kind of um, portfolio of their wealth, both offensive and defensive. So everything that has to do with risk management and efficiency and investing into traditional um, assets such as stocks, bonds, treasury bills.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: But then through that in the alternative world they're going into private equity, they're investing into companies, but that's not the majority of their portfolio. So I hope that kind of answered your question. It's just really more the goals. Family offices have a longer term horizon and based on the family, they might have different focuses and different industries that they like and don't like, but they don't have to deploy and they don't have to raise. They could be very flexible. VCs on the other hand, they're constantly having to raise capital and constantly having to deploy capital.

Speaker A: So when you say longer term, like longer than the seven to ten years that VCs normally target. Right. So they're looking for more, they have more flexibility in that sense.

Speaker B: They do. I mean some families are looking to have exits and have liquidity. Some other families are just looking to acquire operating businesses that they can hold as cash flowing cows pretty much, or just holding assets that they might just transfer over to the next generation. And it could be both for a philanthropic reason or it can be for an impact reason or it can be for infrastructure. Right. So some of these families are investing into, let's say waste management in India. Right. Within that they're probably investing in energy, they're probably investing in education and maybe all those investments don't go well. But overall they're investing into economies and communities. So uh, it's not necessarily just a one of one, it's is more like how can I build an ecosystem that feeds into itself and then just grows over time? A lot of them already have had exits in the past, which is how they became wealthy in the first place. So for them it's now more about preserving that wealth instead of chasing for the next big thing again.

Speaker A: And because they don't have to raise, that's actually good. That takes the pressure off so they can maintain what they have and think of how to maintain it rather than having to raise and invest again in that shorter period of time. Well, it's not short from our perspective, but in the terms of a generation, it's still short because it's like just 10 years of it.

Speaker B: Yeah, they're typically thinking 15, 20, 25 years, you know, in the future and when they're making their investments, um, you know, depending on where the family sits, you know, they're really considering so many other factors aside from just returns. Is this, is this going to be a good fit for our family and our family values? Is this going to be a good fit for our reputation? Is this going to be a good fit, uh, for what we already hold in terms of investments? So they're answering a lot of other questions. And then the way that they preserve their wealth is by managing uh, a superstar team that can really help them organize all their finances, organize all the things that they do from a lifestyle perspective as well, because their personal life and their professional life are so intertwined together. So it's really like what's best for the family and what's best for the business is the same question.

Speaker A: So in the construct of a family office, we know that VCs have LPs and then GPs that manage the fund. In the construct, what, how does it look like a family office? Are, uh, is it people that are hired into this office that have different tasks to take care of or what does it look like?

Speaker B: It varies on the family. You know, typically you have a kind of so called parent company or board of advisors or the main kind of uh, group that's managing all the other groups, you know, very typical. Right. So you might have 100 LLC, 200 LLCs under a family office, but then on the top you have a team of six to eight, you know, experts managing all that wealth. And so that's for a single family office typically. So if you're worth 150 to 300 million, you might have a team that's managing all that and then you're leveraging different places where you park your money. So everything from, you know, investment banks to utilizing accounting firms to outsourcing different things. So, you know, for the majority of them, they're managing most of it in house and then they're able to outsource some things depending on how the family works. And then there's something called multifamily offices which manage pretty much all your wealth like a normal wealth manager would for a percentage. But they don't take on a thousand clients, they only take on 10, 15 clients. And they do all this planning for the family offices. So it really depends on how the family wants to operate and how involved they want to be in the decision making, how involved they want to be, um, you know, in the wealth management of their family. But then within that they might have different ways of structuring themselves based on where they're located and some of the areas that they're interested in investing in. So you can have a family office that's located in New York, but they also have some boots on the ground in Dubai because they're making some investments out there in the Middle east because they see where that's going, for example, or vice versa. You can have a family office in Dubai, have a, uh, structure here in the US to then invest in the US and then do different things that way. So the structure can vary, but for most of the time it's very close to home and it's like a small triangle that trickles down.

Speaker A: So from a startup's perspective, from a founder's point of view, what, what would you recommend or advise them? Um, when it comes to family offices, should, should they invest their time and expand their network in a way to get connected to these people or should they be, you know, when they do that, if it's a yes, should they do that if it went early stage or later stage, growth stage, or should they just focused on um, angels and VCs depending on where they're at?

Speaker B: Depends on the stage that they're in and the team that they have backing them. Right. If you're a first time founder, if it's your first time going on a venture and you're in pre seed, seed stage, you're too early for family offices because like I said, family offices don't have to deploy, they don't have a quota to meet necessarily. So when they invest in something, they wholeheartedly believe in it, whether they're going to be a part of it or if they're going to invest passively but typically they invest post series A, post revenue to de risk that typically that doesn't mean they won't invest. Super early stage is just um, a lot harder to kind of get that capital from them at that point. Unless this individual does built their wealth investing into early stage companies and this individual understands that to the T and they're willing to kind of do it again. But most of them are not too keen in investing super early stage. So I do recommend sticking with angels, VCs, incubators, accelerators, kind of those early stage funders. But then keeping those relationships with family offices as you grow and keep them in your, in your, in your Rolodex from updates and what you're doing and as you keep growing your company because then they can come in later. Um, and they're always getting deals first because they have great relationships with VCs and investment banks and private equity groups. And so they can see the companies that are going from series A to series B that are really great, the creme of the creme, um, and then they can see who's backing them. And if there are people that they've invested with before, they might be open to investing with you too. But it is a longer term process. They really do like to get to know the people they invest in because uh, like I said, most of their wealth is actually not in early stage companies. Most of their wealth is just in traditional investments, alternative investments that hold long periods of time like real estate and operating businesses and IP things that you know, just are consistent. Um, so in order to start working with family offices, just understand that it is a long term game and if you have a team that's already had previous exits and maybe has some relationships in that, that's always a plus. Right? So having a great team, having great opportunity, um, those are like the two main things that they look for. But it really comes down to like longer term horizon for them. And if they, if and typically right now with like AI or emerging technologies, robotics, it could, it could be something very exciting that is very early stage that people don't understand. So your best friend as an early stage company is education. So if you can start educating these families, they want to learn more, they want to be ahead of the curve, they want to be at the forefront of things. Um, and then they want to come in early. Like I'll give you a quick example. I remember like four years ago, uh, we were having panel discussions and meetings with family offices regarding crypto and half of the room was like, no, I don't invest in crypto and I never will. And then the other half was like, bitcoin is great, everyone should invest in bitcoin. And most of the room was not super interested in it. That was about four or five years ago. We just had a private conversation with Pantera, which is a really large fund in crypto last week in New York and there was about 40 people there asking questions. They all raise their hands when they say they invest in crypto. Things change, adoption changes. So sometimes for very early stage companies that have some amazing technology, it's just about like that adoption curve and then educating families and then finding that right time. Um, it's, you know, it's just like the market cycle. If you've ever studied those, like a company goes up, it scales, then it remains stagnant, right. And then it becomes an enterprise or it fails, which is 90% of the time.

Speaker A: How do you recommend and advise that startups to um, find the right family office that you know, they find a mutual potential collaboration with each other in the farther in the near future,

Speaker B: really creating a dialogue. It's a, it's a two way street, especially with family offices.

Speaker A: But where do they find them?

Speaker B: You're going to find them in different places. So you can attend conferences, events where family offices go to. Um, if you kind of study, you know, year round where family offices are like all of them like to go to different sporting events like Formula one or you know, yachts in Monaco or yacht week as well in for Lauderdale. Right. Like this happening actually this week. Um, then you have Basel in Miami happening in December. Just kind of going where the money is going really. And it could be in a lot of different ways. But my suggestion is just to find your aligned interest that you like and kind of understanding what you are looking to do, you know, what industries you're looking to tap into. Because then based on those circles, then you're going to find family offices that are also interested in those circles and those are going to be the best ones for you. Um, so it's just about understanding like where your strengths are and then kind of going around those circles and putting yourself out there and trying to read the same things, listen to the same podcasts, you know, attend the same events and then eventually becomes like really small circles that everyone knows each other. Um, I definitely recommend attending events. My company hosts some amazing family office forums globally. Presto. And partner, um, you know, where you can meet a lot of family offices. However we are global so some events might be in Germany or Switzerland. And they might not be a good fit for a company that's only doing work in Texas, for example, um, might not be the best use of their time. But someone in Texas trying to find those groups that are hosting local events on Luma, or trying to host those, trying, uh, to find those private dinners or all you really need is just to develop relationships with one family. Once you develop a relationship with one family, then they start introducing you to their friends and vice versa, and then you can grow from there. But it's really, that's why I go back to what I mentioned earlier. It's a dialogue. So once you get to know a family on a personal level and they get to know you, then you kind of get invited into the smaller groups and then you can kind of move around and grow your network that way. Uh, but it takes time. It's not something that you can do overnight. And you could potentially meet a family office at an event today. Um, but if you don't follow up, if you don't continue to build that relationship, um, then there's not much you can do there.

Speaker A: Tell me about how family offices right now think about AI and investing in the artificial intelligence startups at this point.

Speaker B: Um, a lot of them kind of have two main viewpoints. Uh, the first one is similar to, you know, the Internet bubble, right? Like we don't really know which companies are going to stick around. Um, so it's just trying to figure out where these companies are solving the biggest problems, where they can kind of have the biggest impact. And it could also be, you know, in their existing investments. So let's say I have a family office that developed their wealth in manufacturing. You know, how can I find tools that are going to improve my processes? I mean, we just saw Amazon laid off I don't know how many people this week because they're implementing AI and robotics into their existing systems, right? So those type of companies that are very niche that could already improve existing efficiencies, um, that's where people are kind of looking into those verticals. Um, not necessarily the ones that are like, just like, you know, consumer based typically, because you don't know what's going to stick. You don't know who's going to win the race over time. Uh, whoever tells you they know, I don't think, I don't think they actually know. And then the second way is investing in the casino, right? Like, uh, when you go in a casino, there's a lot of different slot machines, a lot of different games you can play. But the best game you can invest in there is the game of the casino and investing in the casino. And so that's how family offices are viewing AI too, which is the infrastructure piece. So investing into the data centers, investing into the energy that's going to power the data centers, investing into cooling systems and cooling companies that are going to keep these data centers, uh, running efficiently. Investing in cybersecurity companies that are going to manage these data centers both from physical and digital risks. So they're kind of looking into that in that way, like the real estate behind it, uh, the companies, the operators behind that. So the infrastructure piece is really big and then also working alongside the governments. Um, so you know the DoD has a lot of, a lot of interest in AI and so if you have companies that have government contracts and companies that are doing things with the government, um, that kind of de. Risks a lot of things. And family offices are a lot more open into investing in that because they know that the government is, is behind that and that's for sure money. So you know, that's kind of how they're looking at it. I hope that answered the question and happy to deep dive into anything there.

Speaker A: I mean if the government can pay. Because right now there's an until October 23rd, if the government doesn't open up, um, we'll have problems. So hopefully true.

Speaker B: You know, the one thing to think about is um, a lot of family offices when they're making investments, they don't really want it to be too correlated to who is in power. And so when I mean by the government, I not only mean the US government, I'm also talking about European countries, Middle East, Asia, Africa, India. So there's a lot. They really have a global viewpoint when it comes to investing. And again it's a long term horizon. Even if they're bleeding money, let's say for the next two, three years, even the next 20 years, they still profit and they have something that, you know, that will be uh, withstanding time. Then it's, it's great. Like they're willing to wait.

Speaker A: So you said Europeans and Middle east and all those kind of governments. Where do they right now in the, in the landscape of what, what all the things that are happening in the world, including AI and technology and the way the shifts are happening. Where, uh, where is their focused mostly you think? I think based on, based on, you know, based on what, you know, I know that there's going to be a lot of different family life is doing

Speaker B: different things, but I think Energy is a big one. Um, you know, the cost of energy in other countries, such as Iceland or other places in Europe, are a lot lower than here. So a lot of people are considering these places, um, to build out some of these large infrastructures that we're going to need and, you know, the processing power that we need as well. So, um, I think energy is a big one. I think that when it comes to health and wellness is another big one as well. So if you look at Riyadh, if you look at Saudi, they've been investing into a lot of different verticals, including gaming, entertainment. But health and wellness is another big one. So a lot of family offices, if you look at some of the luxury real estate that's coming up now, um, a lot of them include the red light therapy, cold plunging, biohacking. There's a big trend moving in that direction when it comes to longevity. Right, because the biggest risk to a family office is their health. They can have all the money in the world, but if they get sick and die tomorrow and, you know, they have to have a plan for the next generation, uh, so longevity, quality of life, those things are becoming really interesting out there in Riyadh and in a couple other places in Europe, which they understand very well. If you also look at, you know, EVs, China is pretty far in that race. But also if you look at countries like Norway or finland, you know, 60% of their public transportation is already electric. Really sure for it. They do. If you ever get a chance to go to Norway, you can take a train. There's just as many Teslas as there are here in California. Um, it's like very electric and they get it. And so, you know, some of these things like health, health and wellness, lifestyle, um, you know, if you look at Novak Djokovic going back to tennis, he just moved to Greece full, uh, time, so he's going to be living in Greece. And there's a lot of other famous investors and athletes that have been moving to Greece. Giannis Atetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks mentioned that after he retires from the NBA, he's going to live in Greece. He doesn't want to live in the States. So I don't know what the world's going to look like in the next 10 to 15 years, but just know that family offices are taking a global perspective on how things will change and why.

Speaker A: Greece, where they go to Greece, lifestyle, taxes.

Speaker B: Same reason you go to Monaco, same reason you go to Malta, same reason you go to Cyprus.

Speaker A: Isn't it the same with the Gulf countries as well. I thought they have, like, really low or just zero tax on Cayman Islands.

Speaker B: You have, um, you know, different, other places as well in the Bahamas that have some great benefits. Um, so, yes, I mean, it depends. Guernsey is another place if you ever want to research that too. Off the coast of France. Um, Sekilles is another place. There's a couple islands off of the West Indies. Uh, there's a lot of places where people can park money and get a lot of benefits and, and also get, again, lifestyle. Um, I think that's really important for

Speaker A: families and fun too. So what are, what is, what is your goal? Where do you want to go and live and retire?

Speaker B: Don't know. I don't really believe in retirement myself. Um, you know, my retirement.

Speaker A: In the sense that you don't work, but in the sense that you now want that kind of lifestyle for yourself as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it can vary. It's a lot of different ways. You know, for me, it's more about just having the freedom to be with my family and, uh, do the things that we want to do. So that's. That's kind of the main thing. And then just. And just giving back, you know, I love education, so something within the realms of youth development would be really nice to put a lot of effort and resources to over time and watch that grow. Um, but, yeah, I mean, I don't really believe in retirement. I know I'm always going to have another project, another thing. My grandpa's 86. He's had, uh, you know, Parkinson's for like 15 years. He still puts on a suit every morning and still jumps on zoom calls in the morning. So he's still working.

Speaker A: That's fascinating. Actually, I was reading something about longevity and how Japanese, um, elderly work even until 95, and they go to the. If they have a shop, they, you know, get up in the morning, they just go to the shop and they do what they do. They're just slower, but they're still active. And that's the reason, one of the reasons at least, that they're living longer than a lot of us.

Speaker B: Correct, correct. Um, but, you know, within. Within longevity. You know, I've been kind of studying a lot of it as well. Personally, um, the two biggest things that I've seen, you know, aside from exercising and dieting and taking care of your body, uh, it's actually finding community and then having purpose. So when you have a community, right. When you have a group of people that you're doing an activity Together, you're welcome. Everyone wants to feel like they belong once you have a community and then you have a purpose. So you're doing something bigger than yourself.

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: Like, I love what I do because I'm connecting leaders globally where they can actually make an impact. And I'm supporting companies through that journey. Uh, to me, is very, very, very rewarding work that I get to do. When I get a text message from a client saying, hey, I met so and so at your event. Completely changed my life. I pivoted into this. I did that. It's so beautiful. Right? And so when you have purpose and you have community, that keeps you going every day. Um, you know, for me, my purpose is my family. My family, where I come from, which is Latino culture. I always represent my Latinos wherever I go. Um, you know, that's part of my identity. And sports, uh, love sports. So I always tell people, like, if you've never played tennis, you can play tennis now, and you're going to be healthier, and you're going to find community, you're going to find purpose, and you're going to be able to do something that's enjoyable, not only physically, but also mentally. Tennis is a mental game, um, and an emotional game. And so, you know, that's kind of, for me. But everyone has their things, Everyone has their passions, their strengths. So just kind of finding alignment in that, I think, uh, I think is a good way to just keep going. And the Japanese, you know, it's one of my favorite cultures. They have bridged the gap between tradition and then modern society. So, you know, whether they have all this tech and they have all these amazing new toys coming out all the time. In the AI world, for example, they still go back and respect their elders and focus on nature and take, you know, ownership in their craftsmanship. If you go to Japan and you try to give them a tip, that's, uh, actually disrespectful to them because they just want to do the best that they can do, and that's enough. And so I think some of those principles are really important.

Speaker A: Love that. Actually, um, I was reading this is a couple of years ago. I don't know what is the number right now, but 70% of Japan. Japan was actually nature. Uh, they didn't actually go in and say, okay, we have this land. Let's just get rid of the trees and build our skyscrapers, uh, and stuff. They really do respect nature.

Speaker B: They do.

Speaker A: Um, what I'm curious because you're working with the family offices, but you're also helping and if coaching and speaking to startups as well. How do you keep yourself up to date with what's happening in the technology world, especially the AI trends? Is there any good resources that you can share with us?

Speaker B: Absolutely. I think that, um, you know, podcasts like yours are great. So making sure you add podcasts that are, you know, talking about AI. Uh, the way that I get my AI information is through Superhuman AI, the newsletter. So I get that newsletter every single day. Um, so if you just type Superhuman AI on Google, you can register for free and you get it in your inbox every single day. Another one that I read is called 1440 Digest. So that gives me, like an overview of politics, tech, media, sports, all in one simple letter as well. Every morning. Um, and then Morning Brew. I've been using Morning Brew, I think almost 12, 13 years at this point. Um, so Morning Brew has different segments. So if you go to morning brew.com, you can, you can put your email there, you'll get all the newsletters, but then within that there's segments. So they have a tech segment, they have a marketing segment, a finance segment. So you can get all the details there. Now, from an investor standpoint, I really like PitchBook. So PitchBook newsletter is amazing. You can learn a lot about the VC world, liquidity, tech, where money is flowing, where banks are investing, uh, with metrics, graphics, reports. That is really great too. I get that one every day. Um, so I like to read the news. I personally don't like to watch the news. I feel like when I can read it, I can stay objective and it doesn't really, um, affect me as much as watching the news. When you're watching something negative, it kind of does affect the way that I kind of carry on with my day. So I prefer to read it objectively, understand what's going on, um, and then continue with my day. So that's kind of how I get some of the information there. Now, when it comes to AI specifically, as Sarah knows, I like to attend to a lot of events, uh, in the Bay Area regarding AI, virtual events, webinars. There's so many things happening there. Um, and then I learn a lot just within my own events and just having leaders in the industry and just listening, just listening, always just being able to listen, taking information, ask questions and just be curious about it. There's some great books out there people can read as well. There's a link, I think it's called, um, so Brief. Uh, if you go to so Brief, you can type in, like, AI books top, you know, 50 AI books at the moment. And it can give you short summaries for each of those books and you can also listen to it like an audible. And that is an AI tool that helps you just digest a lot of knowledge. So instead of you having to read a full book, you can just get the, it's a bits and pieces and just stay updated on different things such as digital transformation, adoption, Nan, um, you know, things like that.

Speaker A: Amazing resources. I'm going to make sure to kind of type those out for people too.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: So I want to wrap it up with, um, what kind of. No, I don't want to wrap it up with this actually. Ah, one more question and then I'll wrap it up. So m. Based on what you're doing right now with Preston Partner, um, what is it? Is there anything that you want to share, like what type of individuals, what type of startups you're looking to or investors you can help that they can reach out to you?

Speaker B: We have an event pretty much every month in different regions. So we just finished our New York forum last week. Um, we have our Zurich forum coming up now in November, November 11th and 12th at the Dolder grand in Switzerland. And then we're going to be in Riyadh December 3rd and 4th, um, down in Saudi as well. Then we start the year back up in Dubai in February in front of the palace, uh, right in the Burj Khalifa. And then we will be in Los Angeles in March, Singapore in April, and then we'll be back in London and Istanbul later in the year next year. Um, and so we have these annual forums for all these regions. We're bringing in 150 to 250 people, 70% of them are single. Family offices are ultra high net worth. So typically if people, let's say are worth 150 million or they just had a big liquidity event, um, this would be a great event for them to meet with peers. Now from the startup world. Typically companies that are post series A are great, um, that are looking to raise capital or in growth mode, uh, enterprises so such as the big four or private banks or institutions looking to tap into family offices or do research. Um, luxury brands are always great for us too. They tend to want to cater to these family offices and show them hospitality and kind of attach their brand with our audience. Um, so you know, luxury brands, enterprises, high growth companies. And then we are industry agnostic, so we look at companies all across the board. Um, but we mainly do like health care, we do like A lot of real estate, a lot of private equity. AI is a hot topic. Energy is a hot topic. Um, cybersecurity is another hot topic. But it's really more about the team, the value you bring. And we're happy to talk to you, and if it's the right time to come to our events, we'll love to have you. And if it's not happy to help you, you know, with anything that I can to get you there eventually.

Speaker A: And what is the best way for them to reach out to you? Is it. Is LinkedIn the best way? Or is there a phone number email that you Want to share?

Speaker B: LinkedIn or email are good. LinkedIn works. Um, or my email is jimmy egasresolandpartner.com or if you just type Jimmy Egas on LinkedIn, you can find me and just add me on there and reach out to. And I'll be on the lookout.

Speaker A: Awesome. Is there any questions that I didn't ask you that you wish that I did? Anything other than the questions that you want to share with the audience?

Speaker B: I think, um, you know, being that I was a founder. You're a founder? Uh, we're around founders all the time. Most startup companies fail. I think it'll be important to talk about why they fail. Um, you know, the main reason companies fail is because the teams divide and there is an alignment. So you either have the wrong partners or it's the wrong timing. And so making sure you have the right team and finding alignment with that team. Somebody asked me the other day, they said, what's the hardest thing in your industry? And I think the hardest thing is managing egos and finding alignment, which is the same thing in sports, particularly team sports. So I'm also a really big basketball fan. Um, so when you look at a team and you have a roll of five, if everyone wants to carry the ball to the basket, that team will lose. But when everyone understands their role that they're playing, right, so you have your VP of marketing, you have your CEO, you have your cto. When everyone is playing their roles, then you can play team basketball and you can win a championship. It's the same thing in the startup world. It's the same thing in the business world. You got to find what your strengths are and what you're good at, and then what your weaknesses are. Try to find people that complement you, and then you all have to be committed. You have to have conviction to get it going. So the first reason why many startups fail is because of their teams. They don't have the right teams in place. Um, then the second reason that a lot of startups fail is also because once they're operating and they're focusing on, let's say, raising capital or improving their product, they forget what that first line is for every single company, which is revenue and sales. If you focus on revenue and sales and traction, that will attract capital because, um, investors want to invest in a business that's making money. So if you just put your focus on sales first, that will attract everything else. The issue is a lot of founders, because we wear a lot of multiple hats. You want this to be perfect, you want that to be perfect. But then you don't focus enough on sales, and then eventually you get demoralized and you move on to the next thing. But if you stick with it, if you stick with it and you just focus on sales, eventually success will come.

Speaker A: Thank you so much, Jimmy. This was great. Um, I mean, you have obviously, uh, worked a lot on yourself, and it's not just your career, and you reflect that in what you do for anyone. That's your ICP and your audience. So thank you so much, and maybe we'll talk soon.

Speaker B: Again, it was an honor. Sarah. Thank you for having me. Everyone enjoyed.